Optical feedback laser absorption spectroscopy of N2O at 2 µm

Abstract

We present high-accuracy measurements of the spectroscopic parameters of eight nitrous oxide transitions, mainly belonging to the P branch of the 3ν1+2ν2 vibrational band, in the spectral region around 4982 cm−1. We acquired absorption spectra in pure N2O samples, at room-temperature, by means of a diode laser based spectrometer in which the laser emission width was effectively narrowed by exploiting the optical feedback from a V-shaped high-finesse cavity. The spectrometer was assisted by a self-referenced optical frequency comb synthesizer for frequency calibration purposes. Light absorption from N2O molecules occurred inside a multiple reflections cell, which was placed on the transmission from the cavity. The successful application of a global fitting approach to a manifold of spectra, involving the symmetric uncorrelated version of quadratic speed-dependent hard collision profile, allowed us to determine line intensities with an overall relative uncertainty of 0.38%. We found a satisfactory agreement with data provided by the HITRAN and NOSD-1000 databases. Self-broadening coefficients, speed dependence components of the collisional line broadening, and Dicke narrowing parameters were also determined.